Outside the Beltway

The GOP doesn’t have a charismatic superstar waiting in the wings. That’s okay.

It’s just one Congressional District out of 435, but that won’t stop everyone from trying to turn the results in NY-26 into a national referendum on Medicare reform.

Stephen Colbert has been running an ongoing shtick in which he’s trying to start a political action committee, gets letters from his Viacom bosses poo-pooing the idea, and then inviting his lawyer on to explain ways to get around these concerns.

Voters in New York State may help move the budget debate on Capitol Hill.

Canada is much friendlier than the United States with regard to immigration.

The Republican candidates of 2012 are so weak because of GOP losses in 2004 and 2006 Senate and gubernatorial races.

How much of public opinion is about tribal political identification and how much is about the actual policies themselves?

The Pew Center is out with a new political typology.

An attempt at explaining where I am coming from on in the health care discussion.

Republicans seem to have realized that the Ryan Plan’s Medicare reforms aren’t going anywhere.

Americans are rallying around the President in the wake of the mission against bin Laden, but it’s likely to be short-lived.

A study shows that most national columnists and talking heads are about as accurate as a coin flip.

The birthers are dead (kinda), so long live the transcripters!

There are signs that the Ryan Plan isn’t playing well with the public.

Contempt for Congress is an old American tradition. Unfortunately.

Standard & Poor’s didn’t believe the Obama Administration’s argument that Washington would be able to fix the deficit. There’s no reason they should have.

President Obama is vulnerable, but he’s facing a GOP field that is underwhelming even for Republicans.

On Palm Sunday, French Christians stormed a museum and slashed Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ

We’re approaching the point where those job approval numbers start to matter, and President Obama’s are heading down again.

Arizona’s so-called “Birther Bill” seems to violate several provisions of the Federal Constitution.

Will the Ryan Plan ever be voted out of the House?

Can a candidate appealing enough to the base to win the Republican nomination beat Obama?

Rather than fighting over the remnants of the FY 2011 budget, the GOP should make a deal and get ready for the bigger, and more important, battle ahead.

Politicians in office have a nasty habit of behaving completely differently than they promise on the campaign trail.

Like all Presidents before him, Barack Obama is asserting the right to virtually unfettered discretion when it comes to military matters.

The U.S. seems to be on the verge of changing war strategies in Libya, even as it becomes clear that these rebels aren’t necessarily our friends.

The President’s winter polling bounce is gone, and he’s looking vulnerable again.

Presenting photo identification is not an onerous requirement for voting. But there’s next to zero evidence that fraud is a problem.

The race for the 2012 Republican nomination is missing the one thing that GOP nomination battles have almost always had, a frontrunner.

Matthew Doig of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune posted a want ad for an investigative reporter and it’s gone viral.

Obama is visiting Brazil and Chile while American fighting men join the coalition against Libya.

The uneasy coalition that coalesced around action in Libya will be strained by decisions to come.

Egyptian voters have approved amendments to Egypt’s constitution.

Shailagh Murray becomes the latest reporter to join the Obama White House.